Raid on Unlicensed Water Units in Palakkad

As per the news article in the ‘The Hindu’ Newspaper,Due to the increasing problem of shortage of Drinking Water in Palakkad, Kerala; many unlicensed Packaged Drinking Water units were flooding in the State. The seller of 20-litre cans taking the maximum advantage of this problem and many of them are selling unprocessed water in 20-litre cans.

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Based on the received complaints about supply of unsafe drinking water, the food safety department started taking legal action against Packaged Drinking Water units supplying untreated water and two water bottling units were sealed by the officers. The concerned officials will raid on licensed units too and will take a strict action against the violators. Officials have started collecting the samples from water bottling units to check purity of the water. Food Safety Officer told that, selling of non-purified water not only violates the law but it can also cause many health hazards to the people.

The M. E. Muhammed, president of Kerala Bottled Water Manufacturers Association said that, currently, there are only 10 licensed water bottling units at present running in the district. It is mandatory to obtain the licenses from the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) and FSSAI for every water bottling units. They must have their own in-house quality control labs and experts to check the quality of the water regularly.